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The other detectives were carefully checking three bedrooms, one master and two smaller, and three walk-in closets filled with clothes.  All three knew that a couple of outfits would equal any one of their yearly salaries.

The master bedroom was in wild disarray, with clothes pulled from hangers, but seemingly undamaged, the rose velvet bedspread crumpled on the floor and the mattress askew on the bed.  Frank knew the woman didn’t live here, but in a penthouse on Eden Avenue that  was far plusher than this apartment.

He stood surveying the room.  It was s silent here.  Something bad had happened here.  His skin prickled with dread.

Police and firemen received more and more false alarms and lunatic calls lately, burning up already tight money and resources, but this time Frank  would have donated a year of  his salary to find this call was nothing but a fool’s caper.

One more door, this one of solid oak.  Frank pushed it open and caught his breath.  The others were right behind him.  This was the aviary.  White doves frantically swept past them, shrieking.  Surprised, they shielded their eyes at first and saw it before they could wonder why the doves were so frightened. Frank switched on the light and they saw that a wide streak of blood led from the middle of the room into a huge bird cage.

The phone call had been no prank.

A woman clad in a leopard print bikini lay in  a fetal position in the huge gold-lacquered bird cage that reached nearly to the ceiling, its walk-in door open.  A dove cowered in the far corner as if afraid to move.

Frank squatted beside the woman, his breathing ragged.  Hell, hadn’t he known from the beginnning it would be her?

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Blue Ocean Shoreline

Thursday, I will bring you the fourth excerpt, a seduction scene from hell. I’ll leave on until the following Monday because so many people don’t read on weekends and this is a longer scene.   Then the last scene which is a sad one that comes on Monday about sexual abuse that  blights far too many lives, shrouding those lives in destructive secrecy.

 Will I see you again this Thursday?  Please take very good care and I certainly hope I will.

Third Excerpt from Dying on the Edge originally appeared on Francine Craft on July 6, 2010.

Sea and Rocks

This was a downtown section of Carroll City, an east coast metropolis with a population of five hundred thousand.  She reflected that what others thought about her didn’t matter now, and she hugged herself.  She was a genuine goddess!  Too bad she couldn’t yet flaunt that to the world.

She sat on a couch facing the windows and stretched, relaxing in the too-warm room, enjoying her triumph, wriggling her scarlet-tipped toes.  She would have all that and more after she and Kurt were married.

She got up, walked over to a golden oak credenza, and slid open a door.  She took out a once-exquisite porcelain doll, now dressed in dirty knife-slashed rags.  Its gold chain bracelet with a plain gold medallion seemed incongruous but somehow suited to the ruined doll, which resembled Eden Wilder, Kurt’s wife.  The face of the doll was scratched and gouged.

Staring at her hated rival’s image for a long minute, she spat full in the porcelain face.  Holding the doll in one hand, she encircled its slender throat with the other.  She squeezed and murmured the ancient incantation Die, bitch, die!

Still standing, she pulled on black silk ballerina slippers.  Then dancing in circles, she switched on the stereo,  The sound of ritual Haitian voodoo drums filled the room with their pounding rhythn.  A growing frenzy filled Maggi as she danced to the hypnotc and sexual sound of the drums.  Panting and full of the necessary hatred boiling inside her, she flung the doll with all her might against the fieldstone wall and heard the porcelain shatter.  She danced in a straight line over to where the dolll lay broken and kicked it brutally, her toes striking the fieldstone.

When she had visited Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Simone Duclair, her mentor and friend, had taken her to hear the music.  She gave her recordings to bring back, so that she would not forget.

Tensed against the pain flashihng through her toes, she thought of how Dido had pressed her to make love.  His hunger for her never seem to lessen.  He had been angry, sullen, unlike his usual suave self.  How much longer would she have to lead him on while she learned what he knew about voodoo?  And what happened once she knew?  She shrugged.  Life was hard, and only thhose who could adjust to change would survive.

Limping to the couch, she sat down, massaging her hurting toes, then laughed abruptly, winded.  Killing, even in fantasy, was hard work.  And this had to go far beyond fantasy.

“It didn’t have to  be, Eden,” she said softly.  “You had your chance to let him go.”

Welcome to Dying on the Edge.  It’s now available on Amazon where you type in the title instead of my name.  I had forgotten authors maintain their own list of books, so it doesn’t yet come up under my name.  Price is relatively the same when ordered from Amazon or Wheatmark, because Wheatmark ships free.  Amazon is http://www.amazon.com.  Wheatmark is http://www.wheatmark,com/bookstore.

I will put on the second excerpt Saturday, giving you time to read and digest, and I’ll put on one or two excerpts after July Fourth.  As I said, Edge is written in blood – mine!  No, I have not lived all of it under any circumstances, but I have known enough of its heartbreak.

First Excerpt from Dying on the Edge originally appeared on Francine Craft on June 30, 2010.

Cascading water Over Mossy Rocks

Far and away you’ll learn more about Dying on the Edge from the back cover than from any thumbnail sketch I could give you.  What you read here really is what you get.

Maggi Frencxh is a beautiful film star whose lust for power and obsessive drive for another woman’s husband can only bring disaster!

She Was Looking for a Way Back Into His Heart!

Film star Maggi French is on top of her game, and she wants billionaire real estate mogul Kurt Wildder for herself, even though he’s married and has a child.  He owns Wilder Film Studios, and Maggi’s drive for power demands she have him as her husband.  She’ll go to any lengths to get him, including voodoo.  Maggi lives on the edge of an emotional precipice.  Will her hunger for Kurt provide the thrust that pushes her over?

Was He Looking for a Deadly way Out?

Kurt Wilder has romanced many women and his wife knows all about them.  Once he thought he’d divorce his wife and marry Maggi.  Now he’s drifting and she’s clinging.  Has he figued out a way to be free of  her forever?

I feel it’s written in blood – mine!  Text and subtext lives.  Love and hate.  Truth and lies. Faithfulness and betrayal.  They’re all here: the people you know and those you don’t want to know.

Excerpts begin tomorrow and as soon as we can, front and back book covers go up.

I hope to see you here tomorrow and take very good care of yourself!

What Dying on the Edge is About originally appeared on Francine Craft on June 29, 2010.

Humpback Whales Breaching

My new romantic voodoo mystery, Dying On The Edge, will be released in early July.  I believe you’ll enjoy this tale of mischief, murder, voodoo, a film star who “had to have” another woman’s husband and so, set out to take him.  Next week, I’ll begin to give you particulars in the form of excerpts and storyline.  Tell me what you think.  I enjoy interaction.  We grow by listening, then weighing pros and cons.

In the meantime, I shouldn’t have to, but I beg you to get on top of your marketing.  It’s your book.  Stand by it!

Beginning Next Week, Keep Your Eyes On This Blog Space originally appeared on Francine Craft on June 23, 2010.

Beautiful Nature

Sooner or later you’re going to ask me how much longer I’ll be testing.  You’ll be glad you waited when I begin to tell you things you always wanted to know about self-publishing.  It’s such a fascinating thing to do.

Creative control is the name of the game.  If you get a good company, they strive to satisfy you as to what you want your book to be, within reason.  And getting the cover together just thrilled me.  It’s a romantic voodoo mystery and so I wanted a gun.  No gun meeting my specifications could be found.  Okay, bullet holes.  The artist came up with the messiest bullet holes you could imagine.  I said no.  Too thuggish.  Gross.  So they redid and now you get the idea of romance, voodoo, mystery.

I wrote the back cover material which was duly checked.  The company I chose – Wheatmark – has excellent editors.  My copy made the grade.  And oh, the thrill of having my own Library of Congress Card Number.  They do turn down books.  ISBN, listing with RR Bowker, all kinds of things you can also do for yourself.

There are so many companies to help you self-publish.  You’ve got to check it out.  I mulled it over for nearly thirty years while I sold to established publishers.   This is for me.  Try it.  You just might like it.

Always And Forever Testing originally appeared on Francine Craft on November 6, 2009.